SEGA reports:
‘Today, we are announcing Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, a thrilling new racing experience featuring Sonic the Hedgehog and a fantastic cast of SEGA All-Stars competing across land, air and water in vehicles that fully transform from cars, to planes to boats.
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed will speed on to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, and PC Digital Download late in 2012.’
This week’s entries in the Full price Top 40:
[#9](-) Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
[#28](+1) Football Manager 2012
This week’s entries in the Budget price Top 40:
[#5](+2) Sonic Generations (XBOX 360 / PlayStation 3)
[#8](+1) Sonic Colours
[#9](-1) Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing
[#35](NEW) Shogun 2: Total War
[#38](RE) Sonic Classic Collection
*Gearbox released a single (!) new Aliens: Colonial Marines screenshot.
*The (European) boxart for London 2012 - The Official Video Game.
*The latest batch of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 -Episode II screenshots.
*The OST’s from the Sonic Riders franchise are now available from iTunes.
*David Perry released a ‘making of’ video of Earthworm Jim (Mega Drive).
*SEGA Amusements posted some pictures of their DEAL Show stand (Dubai).
*DCEmulation is currently under renovation. The new site will be wiki-based.
*The latest The House of the Dead 4 (PlayStation 3) review scores:
- 7.8/10 (NZGamer)
- 8/10 (PlayStation Universe)
- 4/5 (Co-Optimus)
- 4/5 (Metal Arcade)
- 8/10 (Glitch Cat)
SEGA Japan added multiple new videos to their Youtube channel:
- Shining Force Cross: Elysion (ARC) [link]
- Shining Hearts (PSP) [link]
- Shining Force Cross: Elysion x Shining Blade (ARC) [link]
- Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star) Pachi Slot (ARC) [link]
- Samurai Blood Show (iOS) [link]
Kotaku reports:
‘In March, SEGA announced that their upcoming MMORPG, Phantasy Star Online 2 will be smart phone compatible and free to play. In a recent interview with Weekly Famitsu, Phantasy Star series producer, Satoshi Sakai, talked about SEGA’s somewhat ballsy decision.
Apparently, the decision to make Phantasy Star Online 2 free to play came about very early in the game’s production. With the increase of free to play online social games for smart phones, the developers were worried that the public perception of online games was becoming distorted. ‘
Victor Ireland, president at Gaijinworks and former head of Working Designs (the company that delivered English versions of the Lunar series to the SEGA CD and games like Magic Knight Rayearth to the Saturn) is answering YOUR questions on reddit. Some SEGA-related questions posted so far:
Q.If the rift between SEGA and WD during the Saturn era hadn’t occurred do you think it would’ve changed anything that happened with you guys in the late-32 bit era? Would’ve been neat to see what you guys could have done with the Dreamcast.
A.I don’t think things would have ultimately been different if we hadn’t left the Saturn when Bernie killed it, but it would have been cool to do some Dreamcast titles.
Q. [..] Anyway, I’m wondering, you’ve mentioned earlier that you wouldn’t have minded doing some Dreamcast games. Well, why not do that now? The Dreamcast still has a huge following and a thriving homebrew community. Indie games are still coming out for it too.
A.There are plenty of titles that never made it out of Japan on Dreamcast, but since there’s no infrastructure to get games out officially, they could never be licensed to us to localize. It’s more of a “fantasy football” kind of question. It would be cool, but there’s no practical way to do it, and we’re not developers so we rely on licensed Japanese IP as a starting point.
Got your attention there? Good. SEGA Japan has launched a service called SEGANews NaVi, a mobile phone friendly portal that will update you on the latest… (’Yes? Yes?!’) .. ‘SEGA Lucky Lot’ which sells exclusive Muppet dolls for SEGA UFO Catchers.
Had you going there? Lets just hope they don’t come and claim the domain..
Gamefront reports that two new SEGA Vintage Collection packs were shortly visible on Microsoft’s Online Marketplace (the original link is down now):
Golden Axe Collection- Golden Axe
- Golden Axe II
- Golden Axe III
Streets of Rage Collection
- Streets of Rage
- Streets of Rage 2
- Streets of Rage 3
No real surprises there, sadly. It’s likely, though, that all packs will come with some extras (Bare Knuckle III would be appreciated). The first screenshots.
Siliconera reports:
‘Joypolis, a SEGA run amusement center in Japan, goes a step beyond arcade games by adding rides. The one in Odaiba has a half pipe snowboard attraction and a couple of years ago there was a 24 scavenger hunt based on the TV series.
SEGA will open Sadako 3D: Cursed Tour in Japan on July 14. It’s a terrifying tour based on the upcoming film, Sadako 3D. Rumor has it there’s a video where someone commits suicide and watching it makes the viewer follow their lead… ‘
*The achievements for SEGA’s upcoming Vintage Collection (Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Revenge of Shinobi and Super Hang-On) were posted on Xbox360Achievements. There are 12 achievements with a total of 200 points.
*Two websites reviewed The House of the Dead 4 (PlayStation 3, PSN); Digital Chumps (7.8/10) and Gaming Age (A-).
*American Nintendo3DS owners are -apparently- still waiting for their playable demo of Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure.
*Gamefront posted 47 screenshots of SEGA (&co.’s) Project X Zone.
*SEGA Europe posted a launch trailer of Total War Battles: Shogun.
While Electronic Arts claims 5 top 10 spots (all of which are sequel games, unsurprisingly) SEGA’s still struggling. Sonic Generations managed to shoot up thirty(!) places in the budget chart, though.
This week’s entries in the Full price Top 40:
[#9](-) Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
[#29](RE) Football Manager 2012
This week’s entries in the Budget price Top 40:
[#7](+30) Sonic Generations (XBOX 360 / PlayStation 3)
[#8](+2) Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing
[#9](-3) Sonic Colours
[#40](NEW) The House of the Dead: Overkill - Extended Cut
TSSZ News reports:
‘If SEGA ever hopes to get back on its feet financially, the company has said repeatedly it must focus on publishing to smartphone and mobile platforms. But to do that successfully, SEGA will have to tackle software piracy on the mobile market eating into sales. If remarks coming from the director of one of its subsidiaries today is any indication, there’s a long way to go, at least on one platform.
“Seeing as people pleaded with us to get Football Manager Handheld onto Android, I’m amazed at how pirated it is,” Sports Interactive director Miles Jacobson Tweeted today, adding that the Football Manager Handheld release on the platform has just crossed 10,000 sold.’
Virtua Tennis Challenge is now available across a wider selection of Android devices. Newly supported models include the:
- Samsung Galaxy S II
- Samsung Galaxy Nexus
- Samsung Galaxy Note
- HTC EVO 4G
- HTC Incredible 2
- HTC Desire HD
- HTC Sensation 4G
*Gearbox Software completely redesigned Unreal Engine 3’s lighting system
to make the Xenomorphs in Aliens: Colonial Marines able to hide in the shadows. This month’s EDGE magazine has a six page preview.
*Greg Johnson, one of the two creators of ToeJam & Earl (the other being Mark Voorsanger) is working on a game for Sony. His current studio HumaNature is currently looking for new people.
*To celebrate the launch of Rush Rush Rally Racing on the Wii (Wiiware), RedSpotGames dropped the price of the Dreamcast version by 50% (thanks
to DCEmulation for the news).
*SEGA launched a new arcade game: Operation G.H.O.S.T. (a semi-sequel to Ghost Squad, we suppose). Hopefully we’ll be able to find an arcade that has an actual cabinet..
*Next weeks Famitsu magazine will include an input code which will unlock a special rare card in SEGA’s Samurai & Dragons (PS Vita) game.
*Total War Battles: Shogun (iPad, iPhone & iPod Touch) is now available from the iTunes App Store. It’s their ‘Game of the Week’ too.
*Finally, we won’t be reporting about SEGA Japan’s Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz promotion because we deem it both sexist and sad. So there.
Colour us surprised..SEGANews.net is currently available from the Google Play App store in the form of an actual Android App! It’s free, so give it a try.
We’re not sure who’s behind this App, but if we can help you in any way to make it work better (text formatting, official logo?) drop us a line.
SEGA reports:
‘SEGA of America, Inc. and SEGA Europe Ltd. are thrilled to confirm the official release date of London 2012 – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games as June 26, 2012, for Windows PC, the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system.
With 100 days to go until the real-life London 2012 Olympic Games, anticipation is building quickly for this iconic event. Soon, athletes from all over the world will congregate in England’s capital and compete for the greatest awards in sporting history. With London 2012 – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games however, all the action can take place in the comfort of your very own home!
Upon the game’s launch on the 26th of June, you will have the chance to represent your nation and prove yourself to be a champion in over 45 events, including single and multiplayer competition across a variety of playable modes and Kinect/Move support! Check out our new screenshots and get pumped for the biggest spectacle of the year!’
For more information about the game, please visit: http://www.olympicvideogames.com/london2012
Xbox360Achievements.com posted the full list of SEGA Vintage Collection: Monster World achievements. There’s a total of 12 achievements worth 200G.
Computer and VideoGames reports:
‘Rare has appointed SEGA West game design boss Simon Woodroffe as its new creative director.
An industry veteran of over 20 years, Woodroffe began his career in games as a designer on point-and-click adventure title Simon the Sorcerer before going on to form Headfirst Productions and develop Call of Cthulhu for Xbox and PC. He later worked at Midway and Ubisoft before most recently serving at SEGA.’
Rhythm Thief might not have made the UK All-format Top 40, but it’s actually doing rather well (see the Nintendo 3DS chart we posted below).
This week’s entries in the Full price Top 40:
[#9](-1) Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
[#32](+2) Sonic Generations (Nintendo 3DS)
This week’s entries in the Budget price Top 40:
[#6](+6) Sonic Colours
[#10](+5) Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing
[#37](-4) Sonic Generations (XBOX 360 / PlayStation 3)
This week’s entries in the Nintendo 3DS Top 10:
[#4](-1) Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
[#5](-) Sonic Generations
[#9](NEW) Rhythm Thief & Emperor’s Treasure